Newport man sentenced for stabbing victim in the face with a pen

NEWPORT — A Newport man was sentenced to serve up to ten years in prison after stabbing someone in the face with a pen back in 2015.

Gregory Willis, 37, was in court last week where he pled guilty to a felony charge of aggravated domestic assault.

As part of the plea agreement the state dismissed another charge of aggravated domestic assault, as well as three other misdemeanor charges.

Willis was charged with attacking a 41-year-old man from Barton at his home back on June 2, 2015.

According to court records, the two were arguing at the time about Willis’s wife, Kimberly Willis, a 34-year-old woman who was found dead two weeks before the incident, in Albany.

The affidavit states that the victim told police Willis had attacked him with a pen, catching him in the head and face several times.

When police arrived at the scene of the altercation, they found blood inside the home, as well as the broken pen.
The victim was bleeding in several spots, including his chin, eyebrow, and near his ear.

Willis fled and could not be located when police arrived, but he turned himself in later in the day. He was taken into custody for the assault and violation of conditions of release charges.

Willis originally told police that the assault was an accident, and that he was just trying to get the man to stop talking about his wife.

Kimberly Willis’s autopsy showed there was no foul play in her death. Her body was found a quarter-mile from her car parked on Shutesville Road, in May of 2015.

Willis will serve between 18 months and ten years, with credit for time served, for the assault.